1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an imaging apparatus for a vehicle.
2. Related Art
To prevent collision between a vehicle and an obstacle, and to prevent deviation of a vehicle from a white line, the following technology has become known in recent years. That is, the obstacle or the white line is recognized through use of an imaging apparatus that is provided in a front portion of the vehicle. Then, the driver is given notification of information based on the recognized obstacle or white line, and the like.
Intense light, such as sunlight during the day and from the headlights of an oncoming vehicle at night, is often incident on an imaging apparatus that captures images of the periphery of a vehicle, such as that described above. In such cases, a normal imaging result may not be obtained from the acquired captured image, depending on the intensity of the incident light. As a result, necessary information is lost. A problem occurs in that the driver cannot be notified of accurate information. To counter this problem, an imaging apparatus in which a gradation generating means is provided between a lens and an image sensor has been proposed (refer to Japanese Patent No. 4262566). The gradation generating means changes the amount of light reaching the overall image sensor or a portion thereof, in stages and in a direction corresponding to the up/down direction.
However, in the configuration described in Japanese Patent No. 4262566, described above, the gradation area is wide and set in advance. That is, the area over which the amount of light is reduced is fixed. In some cases, the amount of light may be reduced even for weak light that reaches the image sensor. Therefore, a problem occurs in that necessary captured-image information may be missing